By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
kain_kusanagi on 14 December 2011
Edit Thread
Shinobi-san said:
kain_kusanagi said:
I'm all for good stories in video games, but to be honest I play games for the gameplay more than the story. As great as it would be for every game to have as good of writing as Alan Wake and Uncharted I'd rather game developers focus on making the best gameplay possible. Naughty Dog has created some great characters, but the Uncharted games are kind of like interactive movies. Once you've seen the story to the end there's little reason to play the game. All the set pieces and quite a lot of the games themselves are so scripted that replaying the game is liking watching a rerun. People complained that FF13 was too linear, but I'd argue that people are giving Uncharted a pass on linearity because they like the cinematic experience.

I hope Naughty Dog does the rise the bar for storytelling in games. I just hope it doesn't mean games turn into interactive movies. I like exploring too much to want to see games be limited as much as the Uncharted games are.


For the most part, i agree with what you saying, gameplay shoud never be sacrificed for storytelling. And i hope this new game doesnt fall into that trap.

However i think your views on uncharted are slighly incorrect, but it seems many people share that same point of view. I wouldnt call uncharted an interactive movie, i would say Heavy Rain is like an interactive movie. Uncharted has a very standard game structure, that of cutscenes and levels. And for the most part, these two are seperated, and every now and then you get a big time action sequence with some QTE that gives the impression of an interactive movie.

What annoys me, is that most games follow a very similar structure...yet they dont get the branding of being linear. You also said that uncharted gets a pass on linearity...firstly it should get a pass on linearity because its not really a negative, and secondly almost every review ive read about uncharted complains about linearity. Third person shooters are generally linear, but that doesnt mean that it lacks gameplay as they dont need to be non linear to bring across the core gameplay elements.

Final fantasy on the other hand is a RPG, and in that genre games are generally not linear and for good reason. The fact that FF13 was more linear than most linear games, when it really shouldnt have been linear at all, was the main reason why so many people complained.

People also seem to equate linearity with lacklustre gameplay, i fully disagree with that. The two are not the same. If i take uncharted as an example, its a linear game with good gameplay, and a good story which is perhaps why it has such a good following.

What you say is very true. Linearity is not necessarily a bad thing. However, Uncharted, while fun, plays out like a movie. What I mean by that is, you can only make Nathan do the very specific things that the developers set up for him to do, much like how a movie's editor shows us the order of the movie. Uncharted isn't the only game like this. I'm not just talking about the QTE or set pieces, although those surely are the most severe cases. And I'm surely not talking about it's cutscenes, which should be cinematic, since they are cinematics. I'm talking about how every problem and obstacle the player faces can really only be handled in one way. This makes it so every play through of the game is practically identical. Like I said Uncharted isn't the only game like this. Enslaved is fun, but has the same issue. I just don't want every game to go for cinematic set pieces and linearity of gameplay.

When I said Uncharted gets a pass for this I meant by fans. People complain all day about Modern Warfare's rollercoaster ride, but they praise Uncharted's cinematic style. There's not much of a differences other than the quality of the writing.

On the topic of FF13 I must disagree. I don't think any Final Fantasy game has ever been truely open world, other than the online ones of course. The Final Fantasy formula and to a greater extent Japanese RPGs in general, are very linier compared to western style RPGs. What I find interesting is how long time fans argue that Square dumbed down FF13 to appeal to western gamers. In my opinion FF13 has less western appeal when you compare it to games like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc. I think Square just wanted to make a very cinematic Final Fantasy and to do that it always seems to mean taking control away from the player so the developer can craft a better movie instead of making a better game.